Akira Gushiken
Character Summary Akira Gushiken is a tertiary character from book 2 onwards, though her inventions play a large role in the second half of the series and she brings the team together using both her advanced intellect and her understanding of necessity. She is one of the more mentally balanced on the team and becomes a famous weaponsmith over the course of the series. Personality Kira appears first in ''Arbiter ''as the only female flunkey, a girl who has given up her once-valued femininity for a life of weapons and battle. Since girls aren't allowed to fight at Equilibrium, she had pretended to be a boy, and learned to imitate the dialect perfectly. This sacrifice continues throughout the series, as she will do anything to continue working on her weapons. She cares little for anything else except her weapons and her family, who she values greatly, and will sacrifice greatly for both. Her primary goal is the creation of weapons, which she began working on at a very young age and soon became a prodigy at building. She is highly intelligent, though not to the degree of Cam, but not an intellectual; she cares only for building weapons, and not for taking in other intellect-oriented information. She is a very social person, and puts an emphasis on being ladylike. On several occasions, she lacks patience or compassion, but learns to grow into her role as weapons supplier for the team over time. Appearance Kira cares about her appearance, mostly in order to wield it to her advantage. She is a girl in what was formerly an almost exclusively male-dominated field, which sets her back, but she decides with help from her friends to retake her femininity once she comes back from her flunkey image (though Mal and Tess make sure not to pressure her into feminine standards, she quite likes typically feminine attire and actively seeks it out). Often, she does not interact personally with clients in order to make sure she still makes sales. She pays careful attention to her appearance after the war, partly to keep herself holding onto something that grounds her, before she gets back to weaponsmithing. She is of Japanese and French ancestry, and speaks every language with a perfect accent due to her caliber. Abilities * Combat - Kira has basic combat skills, first taught to her by Mal and her mother and then supplemented by Evergrove and tutoring from Tess. As a woman in a society that is very pro-men taking what they want from ladies, she learned self-defense practically, as well. She often wields a sword, though Kira is more commonly in a smithy than on a battlefield, similarly to Boz but in contrast to the rest of her teammates. * Military training ** Krav Maga, or a like martial art ** Basic weapons training ** Basic soldiering in preparation for war * Intelligence - Kira is highly intelligent, just like the majority of Wrath, but uses it only for specific purposes. However, she is not above learning a subject in-depth in one night just to prove people wrong, a major motivation of hers. * Language skill - as a Speaker, she is able to speak any language, any dialect, completely fluently and without any hint of an accent just upon hearing it. This works to her advantage numerous times during the series. * Weaponsmith - Kira is a master of her craft and one of the best smiths alive, and works with Boz when coming up with new inventions. Weapons were her original motivation for going into soldiering, as well, and she invents the gun in book four. Trivia * Kira is the second-shortes on her team, right after Tess. * She never lets her hair grow longer than her shoulders, because it gets in the way. * Her favorite food is spaghetti, while her favorite drink is apple juice. * Her best male friend is Malcolm Summers, though she is also close to Boz, Cyr, and Robin. * She doesn't trust Faye for a while, but looks up to her, and never fully trusts Flint. * She, like Tess, enjoys math. However, she dislikes science, art, and writing. She likes acting classes, however. * Her favorite color is gold. * She is considered the younger sister by most of the team, similar to Lenoir's younger-brother status. * Her favorite weapon to create was the gun, but she mainly uses a sword or a crossbow. * Her least favorite smell is gasoline. * She got into her first fight in kindergarten. * Her favorite flunkey was Tanji. Her favorite noble is Ito. * She considers Tate and Tess (both captains) to be her honorary older siblings, and the rest of Wrath to be her honorary younger siblings.